Kirith Kirin (The City Behind the Stars) (89 page)

Kentha completes Ellebren Tower and made the Bane Locket

She bears her child alone hidden from everyone and gives the child to a couple who lived in Arthen to raise, hiding all this in magic

Drudaen again attacks Kentha from Goerast, and uses all his strength against her, and that time the Karnost Gems cannot stop him

XX. The Long Sickness

Kentha breaks Goerast Tower against Drudaen and takes it from him; this is the Second War of the Sorcerers

Humiliated, he uses the gift she gave him when they were lovers and sings Great Devourer

Kentha destroys Goerast and Yrunvurst both as she dies, and most of Montajhena is destroyed at the same time; Drudaen is unable to eat her soul

Athryn Ardfalla, in residence at Turmengaz, sees the destruction, escapes, but is changed by it

Drudaen devastates the hereditary lands that belonged to Kentha and a shadow forms over Turis and Cunevadrim

Athryn quarrels with Sylvis and Sylvis withdraws to her estates in Onge

Drudaen makes a way to extend life from what he learned in the Praeven Library

Drudaen gathers apprentices and begins the teaching of Ildaruen openly

Athryn is ill after the burning of Montajhena and Drudaen sees that her illness is partly magical, cures her

They become lovers for a time, and Drudaen gains access to the Karnost Gems

Athryn sends Drudaen to Kirith Kirin to tell him he is no longer needed to succeed her in Ivyssa

XXI. The Long Wait

Kirith Kirin bans all but his supporters from Arthen

Drudaen is no longer able to enter Arthen, though he attempts to do so to get back into Cunuduerum; when he is inside the forest he can no longer breathe

In a similar fashion, most people who enter Arthen either wander out again, disoriented, or vanish; and Arthen becomes known as a dangerous place

Athryn purges the south of the remaining priests of the lamp-cult, and then does the same in the North

She builds eight new forts, three in the North, and places a perpetual series of patrols along the edge of Arthen; these prove to be ruinous expenses

Drudaen begins several building projects in or near Cunevadrim, and Queen Athryn pays for those, including the cost of Tervan construction crews and stone from the deep mountains. Drudaen strengthens Cunevadrim and its Tower, and refortifies Arroth as well. He does further work on the Arroth Tower and abandons it again.

Taxes rise, trade suffers, and people become unhappy

A kyyvi dies of a fever, and the Seer, Mordwen Illythin, has a true dream

The Jisraegen Calendar contains four seasons each containing two months. The calendar starts with Spring whose months are Khan which has forty-seven days and Kemyluur which has forty-four days. Summer follows with Ruus which has fifty-six days and Ranthos with forty-five days. Autumn is the shortest season containing Ikos with forty-nine days and Imante with forty days. Winter is the longest season with Ymut having sixty-two days and Yama having seventy-one.

The Jisraegen Calendar in use during the 34th Change was handed down from the days of the Praeven, according to the Jisraegen sources. There is no explanation for the workings of this calendar that we have learned, and the Jisraegen abandoned its use at the time of the departure of King Kirith, when Jisraegen astronomy and time-reckoning went through a series of revolutionary changes. The whole legend of the New Sky and its implications for our study of the history of Aeryn/Irion is too large to delve into in this present text, and since the age of which
Kirith Kirin
speaks belongs to the Old Sky, those debates have no bearing on the reading of this work.

The Jisraegen calendar is marked by few holidays. In the entirety of
Kirith Kirin
as it has come down to the present day, the only holiday noted is Vithilonyi, the Festival of Lights, reputed to be the anniversary of creation, in the month of Khan. Few other holidays are recorded in any source, none that are celebrated at the time of 34th Change. Chanii is later a major holiday, celebrated in Yama at the shortest day of the year, which could vary, in the Old Sky reckoning. Therefore the festival was celebrated for several days at the height of winter, the celebration ending when days began to lengthen. It may be that the uncertainty of the calendar and its changeable relationship with the observed seasons led to the paucity of holidays in the Jisraegen year. Without verifiable information concerning the nature of the Old Sky, we have no way of knowing.

It is speculated by many Hormling scientists that the lack of observable regularity in the heavens would have stunted any efforts the Jisraegen might have made toward developing science, which is one of the leading theories to explain the relatively primitive state of Aeryn civilization when we first made contact with the new continent. Others have speculated this could explain the consequent development of Jisraegen magic, which serves largely the same function in Jisraegen society as technology in ours.

Seumren
: The oldest shenesoeniis, built by Falamar Inuygen. The central kirilidur contains a limited number of runes in Ildaruen. The main device of Seumren is the rune labyrinth on the summit, constructed all of Ildaruen writing. There is no Eyestone. Jurel Durassa made a spatial connection between Seumren and his own Tower, Yrunvurst, thus making the Tower unusable in any attack against Yrunvurst; see below.

Yrunvurst
: The first shenesoeniis to include an eyestone of muuren, a gift to Jurel from the Orloc or the Tervan, depending on who is telling the story. The kirilidur contained a few Wyyvisar runes in its original construction, but no rune lines. A Wyyvisar rune pavement spirals on the summit, notating the Ruling Dance. A room in the base of the Tower was linked by Jurel to the summit of Seumren, to allow Jurel to frustrate Falamar’s use of that High Place. It is not known exactly when this took place, but the room was used during the war between the two Wizards. The Tower was destroyed during the final battle between Jurel and Falamar, that ended in the death of both. The tower was rebuilt by Kentha Nurysem with a new eyestone and a more elaborate Wyyvisar kirilidur, in imitation of Laeredon Tower, which had been completed by that time. Yrunvurst was ultimately destroyed in the battle between Kentha and Drudaen. It has since been rebuilt and may be seen today in Montajhena.

Ellebren
: The base of Ellebren was begun by Edenna Morthul during the War of the Towers. She abandoned the work and completion of the Tower was taken up again by Kentha after Edenna shut herself up in Laeredon Tower. Kentha constructed Ellebren Tower after she had studied the Laeredon kirilidur and after she had completed work on rebuilding Yrunvurst in Montajhena and Karomast, the Tower in Ivyssa. She brought her experience in those works to the construction of Ellebren. The kirilidur there is made up of multiple threads of Wyyvisar runes along with lines in the Malei to which the Wyyvisar is tied, so that one Word operates both lines in harmony or dissonance. The fearsome power of Ellebren is thought to come from the duality of the kirilidur. The kirilidur borrows Edenna’s innovation of crossing lines, and Kentha added lines that spiraled along the chases as well. The eyestone, Ellesotur, is a muuren of great purity which Kirith Kirin purchased for the Tower from the Empress of the Tervan, said to be the purest stone ever found after the Ruling Rock of Senecaur. A Wyyvisar rune pavement spirals on the summit, notating the Ruling Dance. The Tower is encircled by a colonnade and three silver horns rise from the crown, these also spiraled and cross-spiraled with rune lines. The Tower was completed shortly before the beginning of the 34th Change. It may therefore be seen as one of the oldest towers, or the youngest. This Tower lies north of the territories open to the Hormling.

Yruminast
: Begun nearly at the same time as Ellebren, this tower was built by Falamar over an older ritual circle Cunavastar had made, and the tower incorporates the circle intact in its lower regions, though the circle and the Tower do not function as one device. The ruling runes of the kirilidur are of Ildaruen though the earliest lines in the kirilidur were not complex. Falamar put his first eyestone into the summit of this Tower, purchasing it from the Orloc. The stone is said to be different from the muuren of the Smiths, but only one who stood there would know the difference it would make. An Ildaruen rune pavement spirals on the summit, notating the Ruling Dance. In later ages, Drudaen reworked the kirilidur with rune lines and crossing lines, like those Edenna Morthul used in her Tower constructions. Yruminast and the fortress of Cunevadrim have become tourist attractions in recent years, and Yruminast was completely deactivated as a magical device at the beginning of the Age of King Kirith.

Senecaur
: The only Tower that was not constructed by a magician is Senecaur, the multi-colored Tower over Aerfax. The Tervan, who had participated in the building of all the Towers in one way or another, built this one themselves, because YY asked them to do it, at the time of the Law of Changes. The Tower was completed in under a decade, something of a record. Edenna Morthul faced the kirilidur with long rune-lines of Wyyvisar, chains of words that were often said together in making magic, making the kirilidur much more complex and useful than it had been previously, since it now provided quick access to long, involved magics. She could employ any portion of the kirilidur runes while she was on the summit, performing swift, complex magical constructions by virtue of the fact that the rune-lines need only be activated and not said. She would later refine this technique at Laeredon. Drudaen studied her technique here and added lines of Ildaruen runes to the Senecaur kirilidur, making it the only tower in which the two opposing languages of magic were mingled by design. The eyestone was a special one selected and more than likely fashioned by YY. The ceremonies of the Change all took place in Aerfax and Senecaur, the base of Senecaur being the old rock that was the first part of Aeryn to rise out of the ocean when YY made the world. The Tower was designed so that the Queen and King could stand on the High Place and partly rule the Tower through use of the Karnost gems. In this way the Queen or King could force a change of the magician who held Senecaur at the time of the Change, and this became traditional. There was no rune pavement at the summit and no Ruling Dance was functional there. Seumren lies north of the territories to which the Hormling have access.

Laeredon
: The fifth Tower to be completed was Laeredon, early in the Rule of Law. Of the Towers in operation at that time, Laeredon was the most powerful and versatile, due to the evolving concepts Edenna employed in the kirilidur, the laying of long rune lines in the stone veneer of the central shaft like those she had used in Senecaur; adding to that another innovation, crossing lines of runes in the opposite direction of the spiral, enabling even more complex chains of magic from the device. Her writings on kirilidur design were used after her by Kentha. The muuren stone was brought to Aeryn by Edenna herself, after a long journey into the mountains; the stone was said to have come from the Untherverthen, though there was never corroboration for the claim. A Wyyvisar rune pavement spirals on the summit, notating the Ruling Dance. Laeredon included a false fountain of crystal in its base, a device copied at Ellebren. Laeredon Tower may be seen today in north Aeryn / Irion, and marks the northern limit of the territory to which the Hormling have access.

Karomast
: The Wyyvisar Tower in Ivyssa, built over the King’s Palace, was begun by Edenna Morthul and completed by Kentha Nurysem. Kentha completed this work at the same time that she was reconstructing Yrunvurst in Montajhena, and made use of the knowledge she had gained from Edenna, especially of her design for the kirilidur. The eyestone came from the Tervan, a gift for services Kentha provided to the Empress. Karomast was never extensively used and, following Kentha’s death, the rune shell was stripped from the kirilidur by Tervan workers Drudaen engaged, effectively rendering the Tower useless. When the Tower was torn down, in the Age of King Kirith, the eyestone was used in construction of the northern Tower, Choveniiz.

Thoem
: The Ildaruen Tower over the Queen’s Palace in Ivyssa, built by Drudaen during the Rule of Law. The eyestone came from the Tervan, purchased for an astronomical price. Drudaen used the Tower extensively to control Ivyssa, the Bay and the surrounding countryside. The Tower was torn down during the Age of King Kirith.

Goerast
: The Ildaruen Tower in Montajhena, built by Drudaen during the Rule of Law. The eyestone of Goerast was of an inferior quality though Drudaen attempted to compensate for this through extensive use of gem-based devices in the horns and in the kirilidur. Kentha took the Tower from him through use of the Malei during their final battle, and he killed her. She managed to destroy Goerast before she died, and the blast that ensued destroyed Yrunvurst and most of Montajhena. It is possible that her death was also caused by unstable use of third-level power, available to her in the last moments of her life. Goerast was reconstructed in the Age of King Kirith and may be seen today.